Tyrmia Chapter 27

[Ken McConnell]

Tenar had never climbed the Tree of Life before. He had always assumed it was sacrosanct. But if Zerdy was doing it, she had to have her reasons. They were nearly to the top and he dared not look down for the fear of falling would overcome him like a sudden downfall of rain.
Zerdy took a handful of foliage and pulled herself up to the top of the tree. The brilliant sun was warm upon her cheeks as she balanced herself on the thickest branch she could find. The humidity was not as bad but the sunlight was more intense than it had been since she came to this empyrean world. Tenar stuck his roundish, green head through the leaves as he found a steady place to sit beside Zerdy’s ashen body.
Zerdy pointed around them to the endless horizon of tree tops. It was the farthest Tenar had ever seen in his life time. His eyes could barely register the distances he was seeing. A lifetime under the forest canopy had not prepared him for the great distances he was seeing.
Zerdy pointed to a rising trail of smoke a short distance away.
“That is where our enemy is camped. The smoke from their fires gives them away.”
Tenar nodded, shielding his large eyes from the bright sunlight with his long fingers.
Zerdy was looking beyond the smoke trail to the snow capped mountains. They seemed to dominate the western horizon. Judging from their size, she estimated they were the highest peaks on the planet. No wonder they had served as a natural barrier the the Votons had trouble crossing. They were covered in trees as well, up to the highest levels where shrub brush and snow took over. Their peaks were obscured by clouds that formed on the leeward sides of the mountains.
A great thunderhead was forming and heading their way. In a couple of hours they would be deluged with cool tropical rain. She thought about how to defeat the Votons. They obviously had firearms that used projectiles. She was betting they had a range of only a few hundred meters. The rifles would be of limited use in the jungle if they were engaged in close-range combat. She needed to trap them in a valley or somehow keep them close together so they could be engaged with spears and arrows. It would not be easy. Images from her bloody dream flooded her head and caused her to second guess her decision to engage a superior military force. Was she destined to die under a hail of bullets or was her unconscious mind trying to warn her of something else?
As she pondered her possible tactics, Tenar became agitated. He was clearly uncomfortable this high up and exposed to the harsh sunlight. She felt her skin getting uncomfortably warm as well.
“Let’s get back down, Tenar. We have much work to do before sunset.”
The green skinned Shaman nodded as he looked around for the last time.
#

They had gathered around the mound of buried Tyrmians to pay their last respects. Tenar had smoked his ceremonial pipe and communed with the Spirit world. Much to Zerdy’s relief, he told them the Spirits were angry at the slaughtering and expected revenge against the Votons. His drug induced trance last longer than she would have liked, but it kept him out of their way so she could make her plans.
Standing to one side of the burial mound, Zerdy took the sword out of its sheath and held it high above her head. The vurhan warriors had not seen such a brilliant and powerful weapon before.
“This weapon belonged to my people many, many generations ago. It has a long and powerful history of death and destruction. With it I can easily cut down my enemies. But our enemies have another weapon from my past, the rifle.”
She put down the sword and raised a stick, cut to the size of a rifle.
“With this weapon they can easily cut down our people,” she motioned to the mound before them.
“We do not have the fire sticks that our enemy has. But we have something they do not. We have knowledge of the forest and we have the skill and valor of the greatest warriors of all time. We are rulers of the forest and we own the night.”
This brought cheers from the vurhan warriors. They understood where she was coming from. So did Kwin, being a hunter in the darkness.
“Our enemies are lords of the day time, but like the mighty zipher, we rule the night. All the animals of the forest fear us and so will the blue-skins.”
Another round of cheers. Zerdy listened as the vurhan warriors erupted into a spontaneous war cry. She joined in with them, even though she did not fully understand what they were saying. Kwin was more reluctant to join in, but before long, even he was drawn into the excitement they generated. Their white painted faces and bodies a dark blue-green in the shade of the forest.
Zerdy climbed up on a fallen log and held up her sword again, high above her head. The noise abated and they all looked up to her thin white form.
“Tonight, we take back our forest and honor our dead with the lives of the blue-skins. Tonight we take our fight to their soldiers and spill their blood.”
More cheers and hollering that echoed through the forest as twilight came.
#

Korre watched as his men lowered the fuselage of the strange craft from the tree to the ground with large twine ropes. They set it onto a wooden cart that they had built from a supply wagon. The cart buckled under the weight but seemed to hold. They had a long journey ahead of them back through the forest to the cave entrance. A separate team of soldiers was blazing a trail back for the wagon. Cutting down small trees and jungle foliage to make their journey faster.
He didn’t like having his patrol split up, but he saw no alternative until they could secure the craft and get it moving along the trail. He could hear them cutting down trees and whacking back the bushes off in the distance. They would work all night in order to clear the path for the wagon. His people would camp one last time at the crash site and ready themselves for pulling the wagon back in the morning.
The craft was clearly a flying machine, as it had a superficial resemblance to the wooden vehicles his own people were designing to soar above the clouds back in the world. They had succeeded in perfecting light weight motors for the air craft but were a long way from mastering the skies. Korre knew that the Engineers would learn much about flight from this craft. They would be able to take it apart and study how it worked, of that he was sure. He was also sure that it would net him much respect in the council and even earn him a promotion.
Korre’s men secured the perimeter and began building a fire for the night’s meal. Sergeant Krupp headed up the camp security detail, he walked around the camp, directing where traps were to be set and positioning the guard stations.
Korre looked up at the high forest canopy and wondered where the alien female was at. Was she watching them or was she a long way off in the jungle, adopted by another tribe of primitives. He could not understand her preference for the jungle savages. But then he could not understand how she flew through the night sky in the gray and black machine strapped to his supply wagon.
They had taken the dead body from the back seat of the machine and removed the suit it had worn. There were various smaller pieces of equipment found on the body and Korre held one of them in his hands. It was clearly a weapon of some kind. Shaped like his pistol, it even had a trigger. He had long since given up trying to make it fire. The device was either deactivated or broken for it did not function in any case. He toyed with it as he walked around the camp.
“Sire, the perimeter is secure,” Krupp said as he approached with a salute. Seeing the hand gun in Korre’s hand reminded him of something.
Korre returned the salute and put the alien hand gun under his web belt.
“Oh, we found another set of those alien instruments,” Krupp said as he opened a pocket on his pant leg and pulled out a hand gun and a biocorder. He handed them to Korre.
“Thank you sergeant. See that the men are bedded down and fed. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
Krupp nodded, “Yes sire. Do you think we will hear from the alien woman tonight?”
Korre shook his head looking at the alien instruments, “Doubtful. She is probably long gone from here.”
The tired sergeant nodded again and then excused himself.
Korre put the biocorder in his pants pocket and the hand gun beside the other one on his web belt. He was not sure how to make them work, but he knew he needed to keep them handy in case the alien woman came back. She would for sure know how they worked. He looked off into the darkening jungle and wondered where she had gone off to.
#

Zerdy organized the warriors into two groups, scouts and fighters. She sent two scouts off to look for the blue-skins, with orders to leave one person behind to watch them and send the second back to inform her where they were. They were not to engage the enemy only study them. She wanted a head count and what types of weapons they carried. The scouts slipped into the dark forest and were gone.
Standing near a fire, Zerdy drew up her plan of attack based on what little they knew of the Votons and how they operated. She questioned Kaymon about weapons and strategies of the Voton soldiers and drew up counter tactics that would play to the vurhan’s strengths. Her plan was to be executed that night, the later the better. Surprise was their greatest alley.
“We will paint ourselves black in the Tyrmian fashion, all of us, including our weapons. There will be no war paint, no feathers. Every man must be as silent as a whisper and patient. We will sneak up on the vurhan scouts and take them out quietly. Then we will move into the area from the tree tops. When we are in position above the soldiers we will attack as one. Every warrior must take out as many soldiers as possible with one shot from their bows. There can not be no misses. “
Kwin nodded his approval but interrupted, “I can not move through the trees and neither can you.”
Zerdy smiled. “Don’t worry, we will also be moving into their camp on foot.”
Kaymon cleared his throat and spoke in his baritone voice, “My warriors can kill a man from ten paces in the trees. There is great advantage in striking from the trees, but we must get lower to ensure kill shots with our bows.”
“Do whatever it takes to ensure one shot kills. There are more of them then there are of us, we must make every shot count. Once they are alerted to our presence, they will overwhelm us with superior firepower.”
The two jungle men looked at her like she was speaking another language. They did not always understand the meaning of her big words, but they understood enough to get where she was coming from.
“The black will hide us in the trees, but the moment we come into their campfire light, they will be able to see us. Stay in the dark and let the night protect you. They will fire their guns into the forest blindly. Hey will be confused and frightened and will not be able to see you well enough to kill you.”
Both men nodded in agreement. It was a sound plan, but it depended heavily on surprise and execution. Something that any good army knew how to do, but they were not an army. They were a bunch of fierce hunters with no real experience in warfare. She looked around at the twenty or so lean vurhan warriors standing around the fire. They looked tough and in many respects they were tougher than any army she had ever served with. The only thing they lacked was tactical knowledge. That would be entirely up to her. If she did not account for something, or misjudged how the enemy would react, they could all be killed.
Kwin set about preparing the black that they would need to wear for the night’s attack. He was helped by several vurhan, who were non to eager to help a Tyrmian do anything. Zerdy watched him patiently instruct the vurhan how to mix the mud and boil the roots used in the concoction. She was grateful to have at least one experienced Tyrmian hunter with them.
“Chief Kaymon, tell your men that I want at least one of the Voton leaders left alive,” Zerdy said.
“Why?”
“Because he will lead us back to their side of the mountains.” She looked up at the dark skinned chief with a calm resolve.
“Do you wish to spill more of their blood?”
She shook her dirty blond head. “No, I want to see their chief. I want to negotiate with him.”
Chief Kaymon laughed so loudly, he started Zerdy.
“You are indeed a very strange creature White Fle’r. No one escapes the land of the blue-skins, they will kill you for sure.”
She looked away, her small hands gripping the sword tightly. “Perhaps.”

[Ken McConnell]

I had not named the Shamas's apprentice until now. Another example of what happens in a first draft. When the book goes into a second draft, things like that get cleaned up.